The challenge I have with the tank diving industry as a whole is what I see as a reduction in quality in teaching in order to keep numbers up. Ask any long time veteran in the sport and they will off the record wish they could take more control of the process of teaching someone. My understanding is that you cannot deviate from what is in the instructor manual if you are teaching a PADI course. NAUI gives the instructor the minimum requirements and then gives them the ability to add on as needed for the local diving conditions. PADI being shown as the primary culprit has more to do with them being the largest and most well known cert agency. Yes, they have done some positive things for the sport - but they are also the instigator of dictating policy for the industry - they are a for profit entity, and as such, have a vested interest in keeping numbers up to generate a profit margin for those who have invested in PADI Corp. Even though many PADI people deride NAUI and SSI as being less than #1 doesn't hold water in my book. NAUI is a non-profit and their interest, at least from what I can see, and have experienced, is to produce above average divers purely for that sake alone. I have seen a NAUI instructor literally tell a student to stop and take up another sport if they were a danger to themselves or others they were training with - he understood the value in saying no - in my experience - I have NEVER seen a PADI instructor do that. I am willing to be wrong, and will concede it when proven as such
I am willing to tell anyone who wants to learn freediving that they do have to meet the prerequisites I put into place based upon experience and observation of the mistakes other entities have made. If they cannot meet those criteria, I either tell them they need to improve their skills or take up another sport. Are they perfect - probably not, but they hold a standard above many others.
To get back to the initial issue of this thread - I think this thread deviated due to the apparent fact that a training magazine for the sport of scuba made such a gross error in information in mixing scuba and freediving, in safety no less, and the error is pointed out in great detail in my email as being innaccurate, editorial back peddles in a typical cookie cutter response "we had technical difficulties" and it was published anyways, is not a valid excuse. I have worked in newspaper and magazine as a photojournalist for a number of years as both photo dept head as well as on staff - I have experience in the process of publishing a print publication - to me, what occurred with this was incompetence at the top departmental levels. :shakehead
As someone who is greatly concerned about the safety aspect of freediving, it is a direct reflection on the sport as a whole.
It's my own opinion, but my experience dictates my position at this current time.
Bottom line - stay out of the water during your surface interval.
